


Natural Patterns (An Artful Remix)

by LadySilver



Category: The Tomorrow People (1992)
Genre: Gen, Remix, remix madness 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-28
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 15:59:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4228035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadySilver/pseuds/LadySilver
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Tomorrow Peoples' connection is deeper than most, yet no bonds can hold forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Natural Patterns (An Artful Remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Estirose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/gifts).
  * Inspired by [The Trees' Art](https://archiveofourown.org/works/112662) by [Estirose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose). 
  * In response to a prompt by [Estirose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Estirose/pseuds/Estirose) in the [remixmadness2015](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/remixmadness2015) collection. 



The strand of woods hunkered at the corner of the park down the road from Ami's flat, and was usually vacant. She liked to go down there some times to think, and other times so she didn't have to.

She was in the first year at university now and the workload made her mind whirl. Most days she had no idea how she was supposed to keep up, yet somehow she always managed to beat the wire. She was lucky, she knew, because unlike a lot of of her classmates, she never had to question what her purpose was, and that made it easier to struggle through even the most difficult assignments.

In the back of her mind she felt the other Tomorrow People, their presence a constant affirmation that she was connected, important, needed. She could always sense them: sense who was happy, sad, busy, in danger. Just as they could sense her.

Except...

She bit her lip and turned her attention first to the ground, where the overlapping leaves formed patterns, their colors aligned, their stems interlocked as if the leaves couldn't bear to separate after falling. After awhile, she let her gaze drift upwards, through the lattice of branches overhead that made a mosaic of the cloud-strewn sky. It was easy to get lost 

Only the slightest of warnings saved her from jumping like a fool when Adam appeared.

Ami half rose, her relief too strong to keep constrained. Adam waved her down, a small grin of apology on his face as he made it way over and sat down next to her. “Hi,” he said simply.

Adam could have said more, easily, without disturbing the sounds of nature in the air. But he didn't. He instead looked upwards, as she had just been doing, as if to know what she'd been seeing.

“It's been a long time,” Ami replied. In the strictest sense—where days transformed into weeks or months—that wasn't true. Of course, as tied to each other as they were, as all the Tomorrow People were, a day could feel like eternity if one of the others was missing or had hid themselves—as Adam had.

“Yeah, it has,” he responded, rubbing at a knot of root that poked through the ground between them. She caught the slight tremble in his hand, the quaver in his voice. “I'm sorry.”

“What happened?”

“It's a long story...but everything's okay now,” he answered. “We're safe now.”

When it came to danger, the villains usually got out alive, at least when a Tomorrow Person had something to say bout it. It made her wonder who had been involved besides Adam, and who had survived the adventure besides Adam. If it had been General Damon, and he'd been hurt, Megabyte would have said something, so she presumed he either wasn't involved or had come home okay.

“Are you?” she asked, because she knew him almost better than Megabyte did, or at least she knew to look for the right clues—and Adam still hadn't looked right at her.

He thought about her question for a moment while the breeze rustled through the treetops and a single bird let out a trill of high-pitched cheeps. “Yeah,” Adam concluded. He sounded sincere. 

“Why didn't you call me? I could have helped.” She'd asked to be allowed to concentrate on her studies for awhile, not to be cut out of the loop. If anyone knew the difference between the two, she thought Adam would.

For the first time, he met her eyes. “I had this one, Ami. You need to take care of yourself.”

“But who's going to take care of you!?” she countered, unable to keep the question bottled up, where it probably belonged. Adam was the basically the first of their kind, their leader, their protector. He took care of them and made sure the few Tomorrow People had a chance to live up to their name. They couldn't lose him.

Adam glanced away, and in that moment Ami understood that he'd never had anyone ask him that before, nor had he ever given any thought to the answer. He couldn't come up with one now.

Ami let the question drop, and the two resumed their silent studies of the designs around them. After awhile, the silence turned companionable. 

As Adam stood up to go, the clouds shifted; the sunlight that poured through a gap in the branches backlit him. For a moment, his tall, thin form appeared as another trunk in the woods: the source of the art that lay at their feet, yet removed from its picture. Ami blinked, certain that her mind was playing tricks on her, for how could Adam ever be anything except for the man she knew?

Then he vanished. The bright flash lit the surrounding trees, and the pop of imploding air caught up the leaves. They swirled away, the ground left bare in a large swath where he'd been standing.

Someday, Ami thought, that would be what would happen. Someday, but not today.


End file.
